Chargers GM Tom Telesco wants to retain Jimmy Raye

New Chargers general manager Tom Telesco represents change from the outside.

But the former Colts executive isn’t all about change.

After the Chargers announced him as their GM on Wednesday, Telesco embraced the idea of retaining Chargers director of player personnel Jimmy Raye, who was the other finalist for the GM job.

“I absolutely, positively would love him back,” Telesco said.

Raye wasn’t at Chargers Park on Wednesday, and attempts to reach him for comment didn’t pan out.

The Jets are considering Raye, 42, for their GM opening, according to several reports.

“He knows we want him to stay,” Chargers president Dean Spanos said. “It’s up to him. We really want him.”

Raye, who joined the Chargers as a scout in 1996, was one of four GM candidates the Bears interviewed last January.

Spanos this month headed a four-man panel that interviewed Raye as a potential replacement to A.J. Smith, who was fired on December 31st following the Chargers’ 7-9 season.

Ultimately, Spanos chose Telesco.

“It was really tough because I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jimmy Raye,” Spanos said. “I’ve worked with him for 16 years.

“Trust me when I tell you he’s a well-qualified individual to become a general manager in the National Fooball League. He will at some point in time.”

Since 2008 Raye has overseen the Chargers’ professional and college scouting departments, and assisted on personnel matters.

He was the Chargers' director of college scouting for eight years and a scout from 1996-1999.

A longtime acquaintance of Raye’s predicted greater successes ahead for the former San Diego State wide receiver, who spent the '91 season on the Los Angeles’ Rams player roster and late trained with the Chargers ('92) and Oilers ('93).

“He’ll be a great GM,” said Tulane head coach Curtis Johnson, a former NFL assistant coach who coached Raye at SDSU. “He’ll be better than a lot of these GMs who are trying to be GMs.”

In several recent years when Johnson was a receivers coach for the Saints, he and Raye chatted at the NFL Combine. Johnson said Raye's detailed evaluations of college players often proved accurate.

Telesco said he hoped to talk to Raye as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

“I don’t know when I’ll talk to him and see,” Telesco said, “but I would absolutely love to have him back.”